Thanksgiving Traditions

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I wanted to share a few of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions. As with almost every other holiday, we do a Thanksgiving Countdown, full of crafts, activities, and treat making. I will be posting about this soon, so stayed tuned!

One of our most favorite traditions is our Tom the Turkey. Every Monday in November as part of our Family Home Evening activity, we each get to add feathers to Tom with some of the things we are thankful for. By the end of the month, our wall is full of colorful turkey feathers. To make Tom, I used construction paper and just traced my husbands shoes and eyeballed the rest. Laminate the turkey body and it will be ready to use each year. 

 Another tradition we have is our Thankful Jar. It is full of different act of kindness or reminders of things that we need to remember to show thanks for with an activity for each one. Example: I am thankful for my family-play a game together inside or outside. 

To make this happy little jar, just grab whatever old jar you have hanging around your house and tie a ribbon around it. The label and all of the card ideas you can get Here. I let each of my kids pick one card every night before bed and then we can plan on doing what the card says the next day. That gives me time to prepare if necessary. I also cut out each card and mounted it on a piece of cardstock to make them a little more durable. Laminating these would be a good idea too!

Last, but not least, is our Thankful Journal. This sits out all month long and I think it is my favorite tradition we have this time of year. I started it about 7 years ago, the year my son was born. I will admit, I am the one that writes in it most often, but now that my kids are getting older (and they bug their dad) it is so fun to open it and see their handwriting in it. I love to see the random things my kids and husband are thankful for (like my daughter adding that she is thankful for healthy food-something she has never put in her mouth!).
I just used a composition notebook and printed off a label that I glued on the front. I love looking back through the years and seeing what we have been through and the blessing that have been poured upon our family!

So there are a few ideas to get your thankful juices flowing. I would love to hear about some of your traditions! Please share you ideas in a comment. I will be getting some countdown activities up soon!